ART
TOPPLED
Stained glass artisan Conrad Pickel’s
vision of a tower for Vero Beach
never came to fruition, though it
helped plant the seeds for Riverside
Park. Today, Pickel’s son continues
his artistic tradition.
BY JANIE GOULD
PHOTOS BY SU ANDERSON
It would have been sleek, futuristic and 1950s-style
modern, like something out of Tomorrowland or the
Jetsons. It would have stood 340 feet above Vero’s
Memorial Island and served as an illuminated beacon
beckoning motorists on Florida’s new superhighway, the
turnpike that was miles away.
The tower that Vero Beach officials approved nearly 50
years ago would have told the story of America’s first six
centuries, from its discovery by Columbus to the Atomic
Age, through stained glass murals in large spheres. It would
have been equipped with elevators and air conditioning.
Visitors would have been able to see most of South Florida
from the pinnacle.
It would have done for Vero Beach in the pre-Disney
1950s what Bok Tower did for Lake Wales and the Citrus
Tower did for Clermont. It would have put the town on the
map as a tourist destination. It also would have helped
establish Memorial Island and the nearby Riverside Park as
the town’s cultural hub.
That was the dream, anyway, but in the early 1960s, the
tower plans toppled. Supporters were unable to raise the $3
million needed for construction and maintenance.
The tower was proposed in 1958 by Conrad Pickel, a
German-born stained glass artist who operated a studio in
Milwaukee. In 1956, he and his family came to Vero Beach
to visit friends who had a home in Porpoise Point on the
beachside. Next thing you know, the Pickels had moved to
Vero and built a home in Indian Bay. Pickel, who did stained
glass projects for churches, mausoleums and other structures
all over the country, opened a studio on Ponce de Leon
Circle. One of his first projects from the Vero studio was 130
stained glass panels for the Roman Catholic cathedral in
Baltimore, but a tower was on his mind, too.
106
The futuristic tower envisioned by stained glass artist Conrad Pickel in the
late 1950s would have risen 340 feet over Memorial Island on Vero’s
beachside. Pickel and others expected it to attract curious tourists
traveling the state’s new turnpike miles away.
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